Gujarat Government accords minority status to Jain community

Posted on: 09 May 2016 09:16:20

09 May 2016 Current Affairs: The Gujarat Government has accorded minority status to the Jain community in the state. In this regard state government has issued a government resolution (GR) giving minority status to the Jain community.

The decision has nothing to do with reservations and the new status will benefit the poor among the Jain community. The poor among the minority community can avail of various scholarships, government welfare schemes. Jain institutions will also get special status like the one given to Christian and Muslim institutions as per Article 30 of Indian Constitution.

The previous UPA Government at the Centre had conferred the minority status on the Jain community at the national level in January 2014. Jains were the 6th community to have minority status after Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis.

Under the Constitution, religious and linguistic minorities enjoy special rights. The minority status helps to give constitutional safeguards to minority communities and make them eligible for welfare programmes of the Union Minority Affairs Ministry.